Norwegian club Nationals on NRK

I just finished watching 3+ hours of live coverage of the womens and mens
club relays: 3x5 and 3x10. via NRK's video stream. It would've been
better if had some you east coaster's 3000kbs bandwidth that I hear you are
getting. but it was still okay out here in Calif. After seeing the
atmosphere and enthusiasm of the crowd, race organization, and flow of NRK's
camera work, I am once again painfully reminded of how far behind XC is in
the U.S. What a pathetic joke our coverage is.

Listening to the high fidelity stereo audio, you can close your eyes and
almost imagine you're there at the side of the course hearing coaches
shouting in the right ear and little kids ringing their reindeer bells in
the left. Every crunch and sqeak of the ski strides comes thru crystal
clear.

Unlike most of other races on Jannes site from other countries, tons of
people, kids and adults are skiing all over the course while the race is
going on to get from one view point to another. A couple of times I started
yell out loud at the monitor for the spectator skier to get out of the way.
No collisions though so nobody seemed to get upset, must be part of the
territory. There was this collision at the start of the women scramble
where this old guy starting official who's suppose to make sure nobody jumps
the gun, didn't leap between the start lanes quickly enough and got bowled
over by this girl who tried to sprint thru him. She went down on her hands
and knees, and got stuck way in the back of the pack. It sucked for her
club. Hilde Peterson's club team doesn't have really fast girls but her
anchor leg was really impressive just like the rest of her races over the
past couple of days at the Championships. For a lot of these teen girls
racing against Hilde is like trying to beat your mom. She Rules!

I couldn't believe it when I saw another golden oldie skiing one of the mens
legs-- Vegaard Ulvang! Frode Andreason threw down some serious biathalon
cred by almost catching up to Hetland and Hofstadt while they played bike
racing tactics on their way to the stadium on the skate leg finish. The
sprint was sooo... close, I thought Tor Arne had it until Hofstad thrust
his toe just ahead.. Check out the slo mo video replay.

I don't know if Janne will make a copy, but I will try to rip the asf.
stream for myself.

shreddir wrote:
club. Hilde Peterson's club team doesn't have really fast girls but her
anchor leg was really impressive just like the rest of her races over the
past couple of days at the Championships. For a lot of these teen girls
racing against Hilde is like trying to beat your mom. She Rules!

Actually, is is _exactly_ like trying to beat your mom:

Hilde GP's team consisted of Hilde and her two daughters!

I couldn't believe it when I saw another golden oldie skiing one of the mens
legs-- Vegaard Ulvang! Frode Andreason threw down some serious biathalon

Vegard lost 55 s on the second leg, after Kirkenes had dropped 65 s on
the first.

cred by almost catching up to Hetland and Hofstadt while they played bike
racing tactics on their way to the stadium on the skate leg finish. The
sprint was sooo... close, I thought Tor Arne had it until Hofstad thrust
his toe just ahead.. Check out the slo mo video replay.

I'll have to do that, since the absolutely phenomenal weather here in
Oslo meant that I couldn't stay inside watching the coverage. I had to
ski instead. :-)

Anyway, since this was the national championship, NRK radio 1 had full
coverage as well, so I did get to follow the relay that way instead. :-)

Terje

--
-
"almost all programming can be viewed as an exercise in caching"

Terje Mathisen wrote in message ...


Actually, is is _exactly_ like trying to beat your mom:

Hilde GP's team consisted of Hilde and her two daughters!

Absolutely amazing - and probably quite unique! (We´ve had
a couple of all-sister relay teams, and there must be a few
father-and-son pairings somewhere.)

Mother Hilde G(jermundshaug) is 39 and the twin daughers
Eli G. and Ida G. are 15. Apparently Norges Skiforbund had
to wave the rule that only one 15-year-old may be included
in a team.

The historic team can be seen at:
http://www.vg.no/pub/vgart.hbs?artid=212672

(BTW must´ve been a good -15C or more?:-))



Anders

Terje Mathisen wrote in message ...

I'll have to do that, since the absolutely phenomenal weather here in
Oslo meant that I couldn't stay inside watching the coverage. I had to
ski instead. :-)

Bardufoss is IIRC quite a bit up north, so you escaped
the cold air mass there, I suppose? And the "snowfall
of the decade" that was dumped on us - I don´t think
I´ll have to complain about a lack of snow this winter
anymo-) - and on the Swedes on Sat-Sun, too.


Anyway, since this was the national championship, NRK radio 1 had full
coverage as well, so I did get to follow the relay that way instead. :-)

In principle, I rank radio/CD/MP3-headphone-equipped
hearing-challenged skiers almost as lose as the ones
who answer their mobile phones but fail to step off
the track:-)


Anyway, I had to resort to some light running on both
days and to merely watching XC, so here a few observations
on the Finnish nationals:

Virpi Kuitunen won gold both in 10K C (with a WC-quality
performance and a gap of over a minute) and 15K F mass-
start, and Pirjo Manninen won the sprint and silver in the
mass-start; both stood over the skiathlon due to a bit of
a cold, but Manninen recovered in time to help her club to
the relay bronze.

On the male side. we saw two old farts, Sami Repo and
Jari Isometsä on top of the 30K F mass-start. Sami also
got a silver in 15K C and Jari in the skiathlon, but
we got some new champions, too: Olli Ohtonen amd Sami
Jauhojärvi, respectively.

The results of the relays reflected a new development:
that of "big purse" clubs who buy themselves a competitive
relay team. The gold-winning team, Joutsan Pommi, was an
all-mercenary team (including Myllylä and Repo) and the
bronze-winners had only one native skier. Even the silver
team, Vuokatti Ski Team Kainuu, is a modern "megnet" club,
which has drawn skiers from the tradional clubs of the
region.

(For followewrs of orienterring, there is nothing new
in this, and loyalty to one´s club wasn´t always so
absolute in the "good old days", either.)


In the skiathlon, Sami Jauhojärvi took advantage of a
potential loophole in the regulations in a manner which
I found to be "not cricket" but which didn´t result in
a protest and therefore probably needs for a clear
official interpretation by the relevant committee:

Sami changed his poles *before the pit stop*, he got
his skating poles on top of a hill a few hundred meters
before it, so his transition to the skating leg went
smoother and quicker!

IMHO this is a blatant breach of the regulation which
reads "all equipment exchange must be done by the athlete
within the assigned pit without assistance" - *not*
outside of it *nor* assisted by a serviceman who hands
over the new poles!

The only loophole I see is that one doesn´t *have* to
change poles (or boots) during the pitstop (whereas the
skis *must* be).


Anders

Anders Lustig wrote:
In principle, I rank radio/CD/MP3-headphone-equipped
hearing-challenged skiers almost as lose as the ones
who answer their mobile phones but fail to step off
the track:-)

Count me in to this group then, i have used my mp3 all the seasoon
now on my LSD sessions, it's relaxing to think about other things to the
rhytm of good music and the time/km flies by.
Hitting near 700k now.

The results of the relays reflected a new development:
that of "big purse" clubs who buy themselves a competitive
relay team. The gold-winning team, Joutsan Pommi, was an
all-mercenary team (including Myllylä and Repo) and the
bronze-winners had only one native skier. Even the silver
team, Vuokatti Ski Team Kainuu, is a modern "megnet" club,
which has drawn skiers from the tradional clubs of the
region.

Anders i read that it was 61 teams in the relay, this makes it 204
starters?! Is this true?

--

Forward in all directions

Janne G

Anders Lustig wrote:
Terje Mathisen wrote in message ...


I'll have to do that, since the absolutely phenomenal weather here in
Oslo meant that I couldn't stay inside watching the coverage. I had to
ski instead. :-)


Bardufoss is IIRC quite a bit up north, so you escaped
the cold air mass there, I suppose? And the "snowfall

Yep, Bardufoss is "way north", close to Tromsø, and far north of the
artic circle.

of the decade" that was dumped on us - I don´t think
I´ll have to complain about a lack of snow this winter
anymo-) - and on the Swedes on Sat-Sun, too.

Anyway, since this was the national championship, NRK radio 1 had full
coverage as well, so I did get to follow the relay that way instead. :-)

In principle, I rank radio/CD/MP3-headphone-equipped
hearing-challenged skiers almost as lose as the ones
who answer their mobile phones but fail to step off
the track:-)

Oh, I agree!

The radio coverage was when I was still in the car, and since I had to
spend about 5 minutes finding a _very_ tight parking space, I got to
listen to the finish as well before starting my ski trip.

Sami changed his poles *before the pit stop*, he got
his skating poles on top of a hill a few hundred meters
before it, so his transition to the skating leg went
smoother and quicker!

Ouch.

IMHO this is a blatant breach of the regulation which
reads "all equipment exchange must be done by the athlete
within the assigned pit without assistance" - *not*
outside of it *nor* assisted by a serviceman who hands
over the new poles!

Sounds like a clear DQ reason to me, but the finnish national language
version of the rules might have more of a loophole in them?

Terje

--
-
"almost all programming can be viewed as an exercise in caching"

Anders Lustig wrote:

Terje Mathisen wrote in message ...



Actually, is is _exactly_ like trying to beat your mom:


Hilde GP's team consisted of Hilde and her two daughters!


Absolutely amazing - and probably quite unique! (We´ve had
a couple of all-sister relay teams, and there must be a few
father-and-son pairings somewhere.)

Mother Hilde G(jermundshaug) is 39 and the twin daughers
Eli G. and Ida G. are 15. Apparently Norges Skiforbund had
to wave the rule that only one 15-year-old may be included
in a team.

Eli finished in 12th place after the first (classic) leg, about 1:52
behind Ella Gjømle. Hilde was barely beaten (by 0.3 seconds) for the
best time on the second (also classic) leg, she brought her family team
up to 8th place.

Ida had a very good race on the final leg, passing two more teams and
finishing in 6th! She was beaten by 1:10 by Kristin Størmer Steira who
had the fastest time on the last leg.


The historic team can be seen at:
http://www.vg.no/pub/vgart.hbs?artid=212672

Next year they'll be back, if mom can keep going the two twins could
well cut half a minute each off their total time.

BTW, Overhalla in 9th place seemed to consist of three sisters:

Elise, Ingrid and Gjertrud (Aunet Tyldum), I think it's a safe bet that
they are related to (daughters of?) Pål Tyldum. :-)

(BTW must´ve been a good -15C or more?:-))

Yes, it was very cold all week, but then the area is famous for its cold
winters.

Terje
--
-
"almost all programming can be viewed as an exercise in caching"

Janne G informed
rec.skiing.nordic with the following:
Anders Lustig wrote:
The results of the relays reflected a new development:
that of "big purse" clubs who buy themselves a competitive
relay team. The gold-winning team, Joutsan Pommi, was an
all-mercenary team (including Myllylä and Repo) and the
bronze-winners had only one native skier. Even the silver
team, Vuokatti Ski Team Kainuu, is a modern "megnet" club,
which has drawn skiers from the tradional clubs of the
region.

Anders

I'm not Anders, but allow me to answer...

i read that it was 61 teams in the relay, this makes it 204
starters?!

Um, where did you get that 204 figure? 4 × 61 = 244.

Is this true?

I guess that number might be indeed the number of starting (or at
least registered to start) teams, but the results on the official web
pages¹ seem to list final times for only 56 teams, making it still
quite respectable number of 224 individual skiers. For comparison,
only 57 finished men's skiathlon next day - there was dozen or so DNFs
and few less DNSs. And in women's competions 26 (out of 27) teams took
part in the 3 × 5 km relay and 34 finished the skiathlon (ten or so
DNS, 4 DNF).

¹ URL:http://www.lapuanvirkia.fi/sm-hiihdot/ (unfortunately only in
Finnish, in case somebody wants to check the result lists, these are
behind "Tulokset" link.)
--
Heikki "Hezu" Kantola,
Lähettämällä mainoksia tai muuta asiatonta sähköpostia yllä olevaan
osoitteeseen sitoudut maksamaan oikolukupalvelusta EUR100 alkavalta
tunnilta.

Heikki Kantola wrote in message . ..


I'm not Anders, but allow me to answer...

I´m pretty sure you aren´t *the* Heikki Kantola, either:-)


i read that it was 61 teams in the relay, this makes it 204
starters?!

Um, where did you get that 204 figure? 4 × 61 = 244.

I think Janne´s arithmetic was: 3 x 61 = 204:-)

In Sweden (and in Norway) the teams consist of three skiers
in the men´s relay race as well as the women´s. Since I´m
pretty sure this is isn´t so because of a narrower (than in
Finland) base of active skiers, I´d assume it´s partly
tradition, partly intended to enable more clubs to bring
a more homogenic and competitive team to the start.

(I´m not entirely subjective, but I think the four-man-team
principle at least used to be great precisely because it
required plenty of collective effort to field a good team -
and the "weakest link" was as important as the one big-name
skier in the team.)


Anders

Janne G wrote in message ...

In principle, I rank radio/CD/MP3-headphone-equipped
hearing-challenged skiers almost as low as the ones
who answer their mobile phones but fail to step off
the track:-)

Count me in to this group then, i have used my mp3 all the seasoon
now on my LSD sessions, it's relaxing to think about other things to the
rhytm of good music and the time/km flies by.
Hitting near 700k now.

You probably won´t suddenly switch lanes, step off the
tracks to herringbone at the foot of a hill without looking
over your shoulder first or skate from side to side up a
hill with your gaze to the ground deaf to any shouts of
warning!

(OK, it´s always the responsibility of the faster skier to
avoid a collision, but I guess I´m easily annoyed...)


Anders